WWE Smackdown Live needs to get its edge back in #UnderSiege storyline

SmackDown has put RAW #UnderSiege in the runup to Survivor Series. That has brought back an edgier, hungrier show that should distinguish it again.

Last year before Survivor Series, SmackDown Live brought out the big guns to rally the troops before the “friendly” competition between WWE’s top brands. Edge hosted a special The Cutting Edge to impress the importance of representing the “Blue Brand.” The Undertaker came out at the end, all shock and awe, and pointed at each superstar and told them they would answer to him for defeat.

These contrived storylines do not usually have the punch WWE hopes. RAW and SmackDown operate independently of each other and rarely interact — except for this moment and the Royal Rumble. They seemingly exist in their own universes.

But at that time, the storyline went RAW and SmackDown were competing for ratings. They were meant to be distinct. And SmackDown gleefully became the edgier, more innovative show.

Maybe it was the brisker pace of the two-hour format or the right mix of performers, but SmackDown Live in those early days of this brand split felt different. It had an edge to it. They were the upstarts trying to upstage and overpower the RAW brand. They were pushing, at least among traditional wrestling fans, to be appointment viewing each week.

Dean Ambrose, one of the most popular wrestlers at the time, was playing heel in a strange championship feud with Dolph Ziggler. Somehow AJ Styles was putting James Ellsworth over with increasingly hilarious and dubious results and the crowd was eating it up. All before Styles had his own title run and epic battle once again with John Cena.

This was the brand that put Bray Wyatt and Randy Orton together, gave Wyatt the title and set a shack on fire in a brave if poorly executed feud. It may have been about at the time Orton and Wyatt’s feud fizzled out that SmackDown began to change.

It was here when RAW seemingly asserted itself and said, “Go back to the kid’s table” to the blue brand.

The “shake up” provided a much-needed roster mixing to freshen up matchups. But it also brought some bigger stars to RAW than SmackDown got in return. And the hits kept coming with RAW taking superstars seemingly as it needed.

John Cena was suddenly a free agent. Kane was apparently on SmackDown and then he was not. Jason Jordan moved to RAW for the Kurt Angle storyline and split up the promising American Alpha tag team.

But it was more than just losing talent. The show became vanilla. The usual beats and storylines and matchups played out. SmackDown became just another wrestling show. RAW was the king again. The competition was dead.

It is not that SmackDown did not have its successes. Kevin Owens and AJ Styles failed to hit its beats, but it set up the storyline with Kevin Owens and Shane McMahon. That rivalry crescendoed with their Hell in a Cell match and Sami Zayn’s heel turn. The Fashion Files are innovative but still seems to be going nowhere with no planned conclusion in sight.

And in came this conceit. The friendly competition between SmackDown and RAW. Survivor Series is bringing out the best in SmackDown again. Or at least in its management.

The blue brand had gained its edge back. It was again the plucky underdog trying to prove itself. RAW had insulted the brand and SmackDown was here to assert not only its independence. The whole storyline may be forced, but it expressed a real sentiment among fans.

SmackDown was just another wrestling show now. It had lost the edge and bravado of its first few months. It has lost what it needed to prove.

Now, the brand is the underdog again; it has something to prove. Turning the New Day — the usually happy-go-lucky tricksters — into the angry, dominant trio leading the charge at RAW brought an edge back to the show. The lines for every character felt blurred because they were pushing for something greater.

The first SmackDown after they put RAW #UnderSiege felt like a blunted edge. Everyone went back to their normal selves, only referencing the night before in passing or as some insult. The storyline is hardly perfectly tight. And it is contrived to begin with.

But SmackDown needs that edge. It has, for several months, been trying to be too similar to RAW. It is not. When it was at its best in its early days, the show was trying to strike its own identity. It truly tried to become something separate and different.

That is the direction SmackDown Live needs to go again. It has been refreshing to see the show push back against the RAW monolith. It has reinvigorated some of the characters and surely will continue to do so as the storyline continues.

Or it might be like everything SmackDown has done since WrestleMania — just another storyline to process and complete. The show needs its edge back. It needs to give fans something different and establish the brand loyalty they tried to create a year ago when they had the alums return for that pep talk.

The brand split is still needed. There are too many great superstars who need television time. A brand split is the only way to get it to them.

Next: John Cena should be the ref at Survivor Series

But SmackDown has to stop acting like the JV squad and become its own, distinct show again.